“Church, State, and Blasphemy Rights: a Year-End Summary”

On this day in 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified. Tom Flynn will provide a secular humanist perspective on the state of civil rights 222 years later. He will present a year-end survey on church-state separation and blasphemy-rights issues, summarizing where things stand on the most significant ongoing lawsuits around the country and examining challenges to the freedom to criticize religion/blasphemy rights domestically and worldwide. This talk is jointly sponsored with the Baltimore Secular Humanists and the Maryland chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Tom Flynn is executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism and editor of its magazine, Free Inquiry, the nation’s largest-circulation secular humanist journal. He is an outspoken secular humanist activist. He cofounded the newsletter Secular Humanist Bulletin and designed the museum at the birthplace of 19th century agnostic orator Robert Green Ingersoll in Dresden, New York. He has written or edited four published books: a 1993 polemic, The Trouble With Christmas, two irreverent science fiction novels, and (as editor) The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief.

Baltimore Ethical Society

The Baltimore Ethical Society is a humanist congregation. We focus on human lives and relationships and explore what it means to live ethically as individuals, family members, and participants in the larger community. We have no creeds and no doctrines, but we are united by our belief in the worth and dignity of each individual and our commitment to working together to create a more just, humane, and peaceful world.